I added a test server to my existing server backup share. My backup share name is "smeserver". If I open \\ip-of-backup-server\smeserver in 'Finder' on my mac I see this folder structure:
smeserver
- office.realdomain.tld
dar-catalog
set4
set5
set6
set1
set2
set3
- sme92.testing.local
dar-catalog
set1
Each "set#" is a folder containing one or more ".dar" files.
'office.realdomain.tld/set3', for example, contains 64GB of data in 94 "full-..." files:
full-20190908164226.1.dar
full-20190908164226.2.dar
full-20190908164226.3.dar
...
full-20190908164226.93.dar
full-20190908164226.94.dar
Plus 6 "inc-" files:
inc-001-20190909164226.1.dar
inc-002-20190910164226.1.dar
inc-003-20190911164225.1.dar
inc-004-20190912164225.1.dar
inc-005-20190913164228.1.dar
inc-006-20190914164226.1.dar
The new test backup set folder looks like this:
full-20190915093603.1.dar
inc-001-20190915095802.1.dar
To create inc-001 for the test server, I reconfigured the backup time and some other settings.
I have confirmed that if I execute the workstation restore and select the "inc-001..." file, I end up with the final backup time (9:58am). If I go back and run the restore using the "full-..." file, I get the original backup time (9:36am). The restore summary shows the same number of files after each restore (but I didn't add any files, so that's to be expected).
If your folder structure does not look like what I've shown there may be a problem outside of the workstation backup system.
Notes:
* It appears to me that for 'restore' to work on a new or re-installed server you would have to give the new server the exact same name as the old/failed server, then configure (possibly without enabling?) the same settings in 'Configure workstation backup'.
* During the post-restore reboot, the system checks for IP address conflicts -- I don't know what happens if the source server is still online.
* I was unable to find any useful logging information related to the backup on either my live server or on the test server.
* I started a "Verify workstation backup" job on my live server. That job has now been running for 65 minutes -- and I don't think I'm going to get to see the results since I accidentally navigated away from the server-manager page and I can't find any dar-related log files anywhere. I know it's still running because:
ps auxwww |grep dar
root 23384 96.5 7.0 318156 285856 ? DL 09:39 57:14 /usr/bin/dar -Q --test /mnt/smb/office.realdomain.tld/set3/full-20190908164226 --noconf
root 28908 0.0 0.0 103324 860 pts/0 S+ 10:38 0:00 grep dar